NW, Chips, and LL – so appreciate your comprehensive coverage of the police department disaster in the gratuitous killing of Michael Brown. I have faith that Attorney General Holder will see that justice is done.

Same old story, a black man gets kill for playing music to loud, for walking home with a hoodie on, for selling un-license cigarettes, for what ever excuse they can come up with. A black man, kid life means nothing.

This is all well and good, Capt Johnson inspires confidence and trust.. however, when he’s gone and the State police move on… these folks are once again stuck with the Ferguson Police, who at this time are quite busy smearing a young man they murdered.

This is a lesson to the “press.” That man who just asked the question…….talked about being oppressed, how do we tell our kids that the police will take care of them………Wow. That answer he just gave about his daughter and Jesus and Peter. We need to be like Peter and “keep the faith.” Tears again. This man is…..just no words. Some of you will have the words. I don’t.

A woman in the crowd made a great point. The robbery report released by the police shows that the store incident happened between 11:52AM/11:54AM and the cop encountered Michael Brown at 12:01PM and at 12:04PM Michael Brown was dead.

How did Mike Brown have time to change his clothes on the sidewalk and mysteriously hide them in that time period? The suspect in the video was wearing different clothing from Mike Brown.

The Ferguson PD is doing some suspicious things. An unarmed young man had bullets pumped into his body and was callously left on the street for four hours. The Ferguson PD’s smear job is disgusting. A young man is dead and that deserves real answers.

That’s the problem I’ve having with this entire case right now. First of all, why was the Police Chief allowed to report about the robbery incident without being tasked with reporting the actual shooting incident? All that did was lay the groundwork for a smear job on Mike Brown and trial-by-media situation. Essentially Mike Brown is being slandered by the PD right before our eyes, and he has no one to defend him while the smear job takes hold over the next several days. None of the discrepancies like the one you mentioned are being directly challenged by anyone in the media – the police chief should have been forced to stay and and answer some questions and not run away like the damn coward that he is.

This whole situation is so sickening…The DOJ and FBI had better have some answers, and SOON.

Do any of you think the “media” is taking a lesson from the citizens. Asking important and intelligent questions. I doubt it. I know, should take a lesson from PO and not be cynical, but with the “media”, it’s not easy to do.

This woman is hitting it on the head… where is the transparency from the Ferguson chief this morning.. ?? throws out some bs photos and intimates Brown as suspect and then refuses to answer questions. Yet folks are supposed to be calm about this crap. There is more emphasis here today on crowd control/ behavior than on giving real answers on the killing of a young man/ teenager.

I agree – I am not at all satisfied with this. The Ferguson PD just got away with slandering a teenager with questionable “reports” after killing him and then people are asked to keep calm. That chief needs to be called back to the podium and forced to take questions from the people and reporters – otherwise at this point, I don’t care if they break out in riots.

Exactly how I’m feeling hf, When both the Gov Nixon and Capt Johnson state they knew nothing of the chief’s release of this info/photos until they saw it on tv- I’m both skeptical and appalled.. if this is an ‘ongoing’ investigation that is supposed to be transparent.. then how do a Gov and the guy in control of keeping the peace- peacefully, not get in the loop? So either they too are BSing us, or the PD Chief is so inept and secretive that he should not be within a mile of this investigation. I may be too cynical- but again, I’m also feeling snowed, as if what’s really important to these “authorities” is keeping folks from ‘misbehaving’ in reaction to the complete lack of truth and facts about Michael’s murder.

I agree sherijr. Something is fishy as hell… Now, it might be possible that the DOJ/FBI are closing in on the case and the Gov and the Captain have been advised by them to not say anything just yet.
But I will only accept that theory IF we hear from the DOJ and FBI soon.

By now there should be an autopsy report showing exactly how many bullets, where the bullets entered the body, what position the victim was in when he got shot, died, etc. By now there should be a complete incident report of the shooting and the interactions just prior to that. We have heard nothing of any of that, but we are being given pictures of an alleged robbery with a sketchy, post-dated police report, and are expected to simply run along with the “oh he was committing a crime why he got shot” type of thinking.

Wonder if the medical examiner is a “friend” of the and whether he will show impartiality in the reporting. Hopefully, there will be an independent autopsy performed if for no other reason to confirm that the local examiner’s report was thorough and unbiased.

It seemed to me that the governor’s concern at this point was to get rid of the visual of people rioting in his state, not to address the reason for the protesting. Captain Johnson (whose name the governor couldn’t seem to remember) was smart in inviting some of the Ferguson residents to the press conference. Their questions about what happens when the media and the state police go away was very appropriate and a reminder that the issues in Ferguson go beyond the murder of Michael Brown.

Captain Johnson is not involved in the investigation and so his only capacity is for safety and crowd control. Which is why we need answers from the FBI and DOJ and sooner, rather than later. This smear job of Brown is going to develop a life of its own if left to fester for days with unanswered questions.

The Ferguson PD should never have been allowed to report on this “robbery” without taking questions or being tasked with reporting of the actual shooting and interaction between the cop and Brown. This is a mistake in my opinion. Because the media is going to run with info about Brown – and then it becomes all about “whether or not Brown committed robbery or not” which should not be the question right now.

The media wants the drama. They don’t seem to be too bothered by the fact that they weren’t allowed to ask questions after the bombshell was dropped. They’re not the ones questioning why it took so long to bring up the robbery. They are allowing the citizens to talk, probably in hopes that the peaceful demonstration from last night will revert to the looting and rioting. They have no concerns about the big issues of Ferguson…just the visual drama they hope will result.

The media doesn’t want just drama. They are hand-in-hand with that PD to smear Brown. And that Police Chief knew that he had a willing friend in the media once he went out there with painting Brown in the most negative light. Heck, I’m sure his buddies Hannity et al at FOX NEWS told him what the deal was.

“Hey, just paint this kid as a felon somehow – and the media will take care of the rest. Don’t worry…”

“President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko noted that due to the support of global community, Ukraine managed to avoid the escalation of the situation with humanitarian aid from Russia.

At the meeting with soldiers liberated from captivity in Donetsk region, the Head of State stressed that he was in constant negotiations with global leaders. “The entire world is with Ukraine now. We have never had such powerful support,” the President said.

The President informed that Ukraine had gathered about 80 trucks with humanitarian aid for the Donbas residents. “The International Committee of the Red Cross receives the humanitarian assistance and ensures that residents of Luhansk and other cities receive products, medicines, power generators etc. We want all people affected by terrorist actions of the so-called DPR and LPR to return to normal life,” the Head of State emphasized.

At the same time, the President noted that the aggressor continued provocations against Ukraine. “But today they are virtually left in isolation. Nobody in the world supports them,” Petro Poroshenko said.”

Statement of MFA of Ukraine on the attempts of RF to deliver humanitarian aid
15.08.2014 | 09:20
PRESS SERVICE OF THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

“In connection with the aspirations of the Russian Federation to send humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, a position of Ukraine regarding envisaged by Ukrainian legislation and international law relevant dimensions was brought to the attention of the Russian Federation.

To avoid provocations a number of technical arrangements has been achieved, those that allow to put the actions of the Russian side into the frames determined and controlled by Ukraine and the international institutions, in particular the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the OSCE.

Notably, border and customs control as well as proper registration of the humanitarian assistance pursuant to Ukraine’s legislation shall be conducted by the authorized bodies of Ukraine under support and monitoring of the ICRS and the OSCE.

The parties achieved understanding that all humanitarian goods, including the Russian humanitarian aid, will be delivered to the destinations that are controlled by the terrorists, only by the ICRC. The Committee will provide all logistical aspects joined with the storage and distribution of aid.

Ukraine considers that a key role in coordinating the security aspects, as well as specific routes of humanitarian aid along the territory being controlled by illegal armed groups, including that provided by the Government of Ukraine, will play a Tripartite liaison group.

The Russian Federation shall bear the sole responsibility for the actions of terrorists, who assumed control over the situation in certain areas of Luhansk region, to prevent any provocations against the initiated by the President of Ukraine International Humanitarian mission to provide the civilians of Luhansk region with all necessary things, and also against the ICRC staff during the mission.”

Whether he was or wasn’t, that does not change the fact of the execution style killing of Michael Brown. A “burglary suspect” is not gunned down in this peremptory fashion. That police department is rotten to the core. Police are not to be judge, jury and executioner, which this policeman was.

No surprise there. And the Ferguson PD knew that once they linked Brown to some “crime” no matter how petty, or no matter how many discrepancies – the smear job in the media would take on a life of its own.

And that’s where the mistake was – in allowing this Chief to put that info out there, and not asking him about the shooting or any discrepancies in his report of the robbery.

The only way that this can be corrected is some strong hard-core evidence against the Ferguson Cop coming from the DOJ/FBI. No amount of tweeting, protests, rallies, are going to undo this smear job.

steve benen is reporting that dorian johnson admitted to the fbi that they had taken the cigarillos. this was confirmed to msnbc via johnson’s lawyer. thanks to tod for all the great reporting on events unfolding in ferguson.

Linda, most likely the murderer lost his temper. Some mixture of his racism, whilte privilege, stand your ground mentality spelled out death for Michael Brown, unarmed and 18 years old.
What other answer could there be?

Just as troubling as HF and others have said is the focus on preventing civil disturbace and police culpability rather than on providing justice.

I’m not sure why the media keeps trying to confirm whether not cigarillos were stolen – it’s largely irrelevant to the shooting that took place. The media should instead be trying to get information about the shooting incident, not the robbery.

my son just stated that the cigarillos signify that Mike Brown might have been high- THAT is the reason both cops and media would be pushing this. He’s not saying Mike was high, he’s saying that is the impression cops are trying to push, as cigarillos are apparently used to make ‘blunts’.
But we now all have to resort to these types of ‘analysis’, suspicions, suppositions- because we are being given murky info without facts of any sort.. just a whole lot of innuendo meant to destroy a dead boy further.

I do remember seeing an interview with Dorian Johnson on MSNBC about the day after the shooting mentioning cigarillos in it, but it was like they were smoking them while walking not that they had stolen them.

Ever since Wayne LaPierre took a week before making any statement about Newtown and then doubled down on his insanity, this has become the RWNJ M.O.: the sociopaths show no basic decency or understanding, and double down. Every black kid is bad, and they all look the same, so shut up and what’s your problem? Muddy the waters with abject nonsense, and it’s enough for the Haters to spread the lies.

Either way you look at it the police chief of Ferguson is out of a job when this is over. He can’t run away from the history of his department as it relates to the citizens of Ferguson. If I were the chief I’d have my lawyer trying to negotiate a severance package because it only gets worst for the chief going forward. And besides, this chief ain’t built for trying to go to war with the Department of Justice.

Hopefruit – it’s not the FBI telling the media – it was Dorian Johnson’s lawyer. I just read the report posted by Lowery. It seems Dorian Johnso put back a box handed to him by Brown on the counter – perhaps that’s why he wasn’t arrested. But I agree with you – tis is an awful smear job and Brown’s supporters have been suckered because they are tweeting things like ‘he miraculously lost 40lbs’ when they should be focused on police corruption and the murder that was committed.

that’s what I read on steve benen. he reported that DJ’s lawyer confirmed to msnbc that Dorian told fbi and maybe the county investigators about the cigarillos. the problem here seems to be that Dorian never mentioned it in earlier interviews. I’m apt to trust Steve benen’s reporting.

First of all, they should have never allowed the Ferguson police chief to hold a news conference detailing info about their client (that they hadn’t seen or were not aware of) while simultaneously withholding info about the cop who shot their client, and the circumstances of that shooting.

Secondly, they release a weak, defensive sounding statement hours after the smear job has taken hold, with the word “piecemeal” misspelled in the first line of the statement. Granted that is a relatively minor issue in the grand scheme of things – BUT if you’re competently handling a case and you have difficulty with spelling of everyday words or you don’t bother to proofread a legal document sent out to the media….

Yeah – it’s bad. I wasn’t so impressed with him during the trayvon martin case either. It’s awful because when you read about the robbery it’s like something out of a teen film and not scary all – just this big teen grabbing cigarillos and sweeties whilst his friend calmly puts back a box he was just handed. hardly dangerous criminals and certainly no justification for executing him in cold blood.

THANK YOU…WE NEED TO LET THE JUSTICE DEPT. DO THEIR JOB…OTHERWISE PEOPLE ARE ALL FIRED UP FOR THE WRONG REASONS AND THE MATCHES ARE LIT AGAIN…WE DON’T NEED THAT IN THIS COUNTRY…WAIT FOR THE EVIDENCE…HOLDER WILL LAY ALL THE CARDS ON THE TABLE.

DF disagreed with me this morning that Capt. Ron Johnson (Missouri Highway Patrol) is taking a page out of PBO’s book to give #Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson enough rope to hang himself.

My personal opinion is that the Ferguson police chief has taken his cue from John Boehner (throw spaghetti against the wall to see how much sticks). He’s cornered and the #FergusonPD have lied from the beginning, apparently completely unaware that there’s a thing called Twitter on the intertubes.